spied on his 2016 campaign. is president trump getting what he wants tonight? getting down to business. donald trump jr.'s secret trump tower meetings apparently were limited to talks with russians. we're getting new reactions to reports that two other nations offered to help his father's campaign. obstruction deadline, rudy giuliani claims he knows when the special counsel will likely wrap up a key piece of his investigation. is the president's talkative lawyer revealing new information or blowing smoke. lava overflow. the images are scary and speck tack lair as dangerous toxins are spewed into the air. cnn is live on the big island as life threatening lava bombs explo explode. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world.

i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." breaking tonight, the white house says there's new high level action responding to the president's latest fixation, unproven claims that a secret fbi may have tried to infiltrate his 2016 campaign. the president holding a late meeting with top justice, fbi and intelligence officials amid fears of a potential constitutional crisis. mr. trump demanding they look into this. i'll get reaction from retired general michael hayden and house judiciary member ted lieu. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. how is the white house handling this tonight? >> reporter: the president demanded and it sounds like he's getting what he wants. a wrapped up a meeting with

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who called for an investigation into mr. trump's unproven allegation that he was spied up during the 2016 claim. the justice department has agreed to expand the investigation. and they'll set up a meeting to review highly classified information. it sounds like it could be a win for the russia probe critics who want the investigators under investigation. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein arrived at the white house for what officials insist was a prescheduled meeting, but it's clear what's on the president's mind. while he's not answering reporters' questions about it, the president is complaining he was spied on before the 2016 election. ranting about the presence of a confidential source working inside the trump campaign. tweeting i hereby demand that the justice department look into whether or not the fbi or doj infiltrated or surveilled the

trump campaign for political purposes and whether any requests were made by people within the obama administration. while they did speak with campaign advisers they told cnn the confidential source was not spying on the campaign. >> i think that's a very disturbing assault on the independent of the department of justice. and i think when this president or any president tries to use the department of justice as kind of a private investigatory body that's not good for the party. >> before his meeting, rod rosenstein relented and said the inspector general's office will investigate. saying if anyone did surveil the campaign for inappropriate actions we need to look at it and take actions. >> i am disappointed with the deputy attorney general suggesting we'll look into

finding if there's any legitimate concern about an imbedded spy. they know it's nonsense. >> reporter: the president's allies have been hammering the justice department's oversight of the special counsel for months. >> the single most dangerous person to the agenda of president trump, the republican party, and ultimately to all americans, is the attorney general of the united states himself, jeff sessions. >> reporter: and the president is continuing his attacks on the obama administration, taking jabs at former cia director john brennan. john brennan is panicking, lehas disgraced himself, the country, the entire intelligence community. that was before the president travelled to the cia to welcome gina haspel. >> i want to thank you you, the

dedicated men and women of the central intelligence agency. it is a true honor to stand here today before the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet earth. nobody even close. >> reporter: the president took time to give a shout out to house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes, who led to investigate the russia investigation. >> a cue ray jous man, congressman devin nunes, thank you for being here. >> reporter: the white house says john kelly will set up this meeting. house intelligence committee chairman, devin nunes we're told was invited to the justice department to look at some of this material last week but did not respond to the invitation we're told. the latest meeting is expect to happen later this week. even though a lot of people in the city recoiled when the president tweeted i hereby

demand. it sounds like he got what he wanted. wolf. >> it does. thanks, very much. the president is getting more brazen in his attempts to under mine the russia investigation. this as rudy giuliani claims a special piece of the probe could be over within months, or maybe not. let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto. you're following several developments. >> you may have to go back to watergate to see a u.s. president interfering so boldly in an ongoing investigation in which he is a party to that investigation. at the same time, you have a public campaign to influence the public's expectations of this investigation, led now by the president's latest personal attorney, rudy giuliani. the president's lawyers have predicted the end of the special counsel's investigation before and been repeatedly wrong. now mr. trump's newest attorney,

rudy giuliani, says that robert mueller told him the obstruction of justice piece of the probe could be done by september, before the midterm elections. although, even giuliani hedged, saying it sounded more like the investigation could wrap up if the president agreed to an interview with mueller. giuliani says he is strongly advising against an interview arguing the special counsel is hoping to catch the president in a so-called perjury trap. >> it's when you get someone to lie. the president would testify tomorrow if it was the truth. the truth is he had nothing to do with the russia. >> now coming to light, the president's son, donald trump jr. met with representatives of two other foreign governments during the campaign. governments offering to help his father's election. the "new york times" is reporting that erik prince set up a meeting between two gulf

princes as well as a social media expert, all this three months before election day. nader told trump jr. that the princes who led saudi arabia and the united air of emirates were eager to help his father win an election. an attorney for trump jr. denied any wrong doing fp saying he recalls a meeting with erik prince, and another individual, they pitched mr. trump on a marketing strategy. that was the end of it. the president himself discumiss the meeting over the weekend. the ranking democrats on the house and senate intelligence committees called news of the meeting disturbing. >> if the times story is true we have now a second and maybe a third nation that was trying to

lean in to this campaign. and i don't understand what the president doesn't get about the law that says if you have a foreign nation interfere in an american election, that's illegal. >> you have to be concerned why are so many foreign powers during the campaign, and perhaps thereafter, that the trump family is willing to play ball. >> paul manafort lost a battle in his ongoing legal troubles, he tried to get one of the charges dismissed, charges for failing to report a foreign bank account, the judge denied that. >> lots going on, jim sciutto, thanks very much. joining us the former director of the cia and the nsa, retired general michael hayden, a cnn national security analyst, also the author of an important brand new book, a "new york times" best-seller "the assault on intelligence in an age of lies,"

thank you for joining us. congratulations on the new book. >> thank you. >> what's the consequences of the president making these demands publically of the justice department and the fbi. >> when i saw the events over the weekend, it was a little scary. i'm a child of the executive branch, i spent my entire career in the executive branch. i know the power of article 2 of the constitution. our president is more limited by norms than he is constitution or law. and it's to the traditions of the office that keep the president, i think, in his lane. and one of those norms is the independence of the judiciary. and here we have a president -- look, wolf, i know, he is the chief law enforcement officer in the country, he does have tremendous strength. what he asked for is probably technically legal and constitutional. but it steps so far beyond the norms that makes people lose confidence in the independence of the judiciary.

which is our only overramp from this overhang over the entire nation. >> based on what you read about this so-called confidential source and the contact he established with three trump campaign officials, do you think anything improper happened here? >> i understand the discomfort of the people in the trump campaign, no one wants to be under surveillance approaching people you know. on its face, i don't see anything that jumps out at me that suggests the bureau was doing anything inappropriate or improper. remember this began as a counterintelligence investigation. they're following leads about what they had from the russians talking to george papadopoulos and that he had some connection with the russian security service. >> you don't see anything wrong. >> on the surface no. >> in having this fbi confidential source approach these three trump campaign officials seeking to get

information? >> you have a bevy of trump administration appointees running the justice department now. they would have been aware had there been any untoward activity. they would have been the first to throw the flag and they didn't. so you have the deputy attorney general now rather elegantly trying to handle the president's tweet. we'll turn it over to the ig and if there were anything wrong we'll let you know. >> cnn has not revealed the identity of this confidential source but other news organizations have. do you believe this source is in any danger now? >> what you have done is erode the whole process. we used to do this all the time at cia. like your profession, journalism, like ours, intelligence, sources are everything. so you protect sources. so there might be something with regard to the danger of this particular source, what you have told all sources and all potential sources that you have lost the ability to protect their identity.

that's degrading not just to the safety of one man but the entire process of intelligence or law enforcement. >> do you think that this confidential source should be getting u.s. government security right now? >> i think he should be getting whatever it is he says he believes for his own protection. >> are you concerned that other confidential sources now will shut up? >> i'm very concerned. look, we used to recruit people. and one of the things we would guarantee them is that we can protect you. and now we see the erosion of that in this particular episode. >> you think this confidential source could be vul me th-- vulnerable? >> i don't know the fine print. but i come back to the fine print, you eroded our ability to use confidential sources. >> the president in this tweet is going after the former cia director for going after a hit

job, he's saying that brennan quote has disgraced himself, the country, the entire intelligence community, those are quotes from dan bongino. but the president is tweeting quotes from this guy. what do you make of this? >> that's an endorsement of the commentary, you can't dodge that. frankly when i saw that on my phone this morning, the emotion that overwhelmed me was sadness. where have we gone? what have we become? what were the limits of the norms of the president? how far beyond those norms do we have to go for anything to think that's an okay thing for the president to say? no matter what people think john said, the words of the president i disagree with john but i honor his three plus decades of service. >> he served not just for republican presidents but democrat presidents as well. >> that's right.

>> he was a career intelligence officer. >> that's right. >> you know him well. >> i do. >> where do you see this heading? >> we are eroding the reality and the appearance of the independence of the judiciary, the department of justice, of the fbi, and of the special counsel. that just can't lead to a good place. >> what's your message to those who are pushing for this kind of assault on elements of the fbi or intelligence community or the justice department? >> whatever it is you might think it does for your short term personal or political needs, it is doing great danger to the fabric of our government. >> michael hayden, thanks for writing this book. appreciate it very much. is the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein following orders tonight from the president who's routinely blasted him and the russia investigation. is donald trump jr. telling the truth when he says nothing

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his current investigation into any, quote, irregularities. joining us now is ted lieu, a democrat from california, he serves on the judiciary committee. thank you for joining us. let's get to specific issues. what are your concerns first of all about the president's demands from the justice department? >> thank you, wolf, for your question. the continued assault on the rule of law by donald trump as well as the independence of the department of justice is highly disturbing. but it's also very telling. i'm a former prosecutor, and these are not the actions of an innocent person. this shows consciousness of guilt. if donald trump was innocent he would let the investigation conclude without trying to interfere with it at every single step and i think it's time the president stop smearing the department of justice and the fbi. and to quote sarah huckabee-sanders, when you're attacking the fbi because you're under criminal investigation, you're losing. >> the deputy attorney general who oversees the investigation, rod rosenstein, he says the

inspector general will look into the president's accusations. you tweeted this, perfect response from republican rod rosenstein to trump, rod rosenstein knows fbi counterintelligence agents were doing their duty and is not afraid of any inquiry. but by agreeing to have the inspector general expand his investigation is rosenstein following the president's order? >> yes, wolf rosenstein is, but i think that was a perfect response to the president's demands. i have no problem with the inspector general expanding his investigation, because it's going to show this was a counterintelligence investigation, and informants are routine and necessary part of all counterintelligence investigations. it's going to show the fbi did nothing wrong. and i think this now puts to rest any issue the president may have, which means the president has to let this investigation against him proceed to its conclusion. >> are you confident that the

house judiciary committee has the proper oversight on how confidential sources gather information and how the fbi handles the investigation into the trump campaign? >> not at all. the republican controlled judiciary committee has fallen down on his oversight responsibility, the house judiciary committee has done nothing to look at any of the very important allegations surrounding russia's influence or meddling in our elections. it's very sad to see the house judiciary committee lose its oversight abilities. >> we have not named this confidential source but other news organizations have. what are the implications for him? >> when the defendant doesn't have information, they put law enforcement on trial. now you're watching the trump campaign putting the source and the fbi and doj on trial. but what thaw're not talking

about is what did the source find out? what was the information revealed? again, if we believe the president that he in his campaign did nothing wrong, they should not be so freaked out about the fact there was a source in a counterintelligence operation. because this operation at its beginning was to protect the trump campaign and prevent russian influence. >> i'll ask you what i asked general hayden a little while ago. is this source in any danger right now? >> i would not know that. but it's my expectation that if there was any danger the department of justice would do everything possible to protect that source. i have no problem with members of congress knowing who that source is, as long as those members of congress are able to keep the highly classified information confidential. >> let me turn to that meeting that donald trump jr. had in august of 2016, three months before the election, with a representative of the united air of emirates and saudi arabia.

they supposedly offered help for the trump campaign in the election. dump j donald trump jr. through a lawyer says nothing came of the meeting. are you sure of that? >> now we know two things. if reports are true there's been two meetings at trump tower with donald trump jr. involving foreign powers who wanted to help the trump campaign. that's illegal under federal law foreign powers cannot participate in american elections. the second thing we know is that erik prince is in a lot of trouble because he testified to congress under oath that his interactions with the trump campaign consistented of donations and fund-raising. this meeting he set up was none of those two things. >> could this meeting potentially be fund-raising? >> potentially, that would be a high stretch. again he said he had no former relationship with the campaign, here he's setting up this meeting with foreign powers with donald trump jr. >> congressman, ted lieu, thank

you for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. ahead more on the president versus the department of justice. is he getting what he demanded? how effective is rally supporters behind donald trump by warning of the biggest scandal in history? our experts are standing by.

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president trump meeting with top justice, fbi and intelligence officials after demanding an investigation into mr. trump's own claim that his 2016 presidential campaign was spied on. let's dig deeper with our specialists and analysts. the president, jeffrey toobin, had tweeted this. i hereby demand and will do so officially tomorrow that the department of justice look into whether or not the fbi, doj, infiltrated or surveilled the trump campaign for political purposes and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the obama administration. what does this say to you about the way the president views the justice department? >> let's be clear about what's going on here. this has never happened before in american history that we have a president of the united states that is viewing the department of justice as a private investigative agency to exonerate him. he's the head of the executive branch. under the constitution, he can do this. but all the norms, all the

rules, all the procedures that other presidents have followed are out the window. and the congress is completely asleep, because they -- they don't -- the republican majority doesn't care. and we'll see if the public cares. but let's just be clear about how unprecedented this is. >> what do you make of the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein's response to what the president is demanding? >> i think he -- the president threw a grenade into the middle of the room and he tried to kind of defuse it to a great degree, which i think he did by throwing it over to the inspector general. and, you know, the problem i talked to one conservative today who said to me, look, that's all well and good, but it's not going to be conservatives happy who would disagree with jeffrey because the inspector general has no subpoena power. so they wanted something much tougher? now the president was clearly placated, i think. the vice president was clearly

placated by this, we have to see how long that lasts. so it didn't become the sort of constitutional crisis that it could have become, but it doesn't mean it won't become it at some point in the future. and it's clear that rosenstein wanted to move on this pretty quickly to get the president sort of calmed down here. and not lose his job. >> the president -- david swirl lick, the president's campaign put out a petition to investigate the department of justice and the fbi. it says, quote, this could be the greatest scandal in american history. how is that strategy? >> to the fact he has an approval rating, it could be effected. like jeffrey said, the president has the right to do this. as gloria said the inspector

general is the place everyone is comfortable with this investigation proceeding. but when you tweet out i hereby demand something you as the executive can do in a memo or simple statement. you're trying to gin up this sense of outrage against your reporters as to say i'm besieged by the agency i'm supposed to be the boss off. it's like someone telling the waiter, i want to see the manager. he is the manager. just make it happen. proceed with justice and finds out what happens at the end. >> all that's happening, we're learning more about this august 2016 trump tower meeting in new york that donald trump jr. had with a representative, someone claiming to represent the united air of emirates and the saudis and a social media expert, what red flags does that raise? >> it's significant it marks the first indication it was not just russia but other foreign governments who approached the

trump campaign with offers to try and swing the election in his favor. it is, of course, illegal for any foreign government or individual to contribute to any campaign or be involved with any u.s. campaign. we don't yet know what came of this meeting, it's not immediately clear. but reports suggest that trump jr. responded approveingly during the discussion. and it's also notable some of the actions the president has taken, that is pulling back from the iran nuclear deal. he's, of course, aligned himself very closely with israel as well. >> he has. jeffrey toobin you have an important article in the issue of "the new yorker" magazine over the divide among democrats whether to push for impeachment of the president. >> it's sort of a weird echo of things that have gone on in the republican party. because the leadership, nancy pelosi, jerry nadler, they're

saying let's back off, let's not do this, this will energize the republican base but as you go out, as i did with billionaire tom stier, you see the base of the democratic party loves the idea. by one poll more than 70% of democrats support impeachment. so it will be interesting to see as the campaign developments and whether the democrats retake the house whether the press from the base will move the establishment toward an impeachment. >> what does concern some democrats, i think it's fair to say this, gloria, that push for impeachment by these democrats could be rallying cry for rub e republicans, don't let the democrats be the majority. >> it could become an issue for republicans who will say the democrats who want to delegitimize this president and

have done it through the russia investigation are proving that point by saying they want to impeach him and motivate republicans, who we know looking at the polls are less motivated to go out and vote and get them all fired up. so like the leadership of the parties are saying we don't want to get them fired up. let's keep our side fire up though impeachment may fire up liberals, they're already fired up. they're going to go out and vote. you don't need to do it to them now. >> how do you see it, david? >> i agree with everything jeffrey and glory said. but this is the problem when they don't agree on issues you push. the one thing that unites them they want to get rid of trump. >> today they have the event saying they want to focus on corruption, which is a way of narrowing the differences because corruption is both a possible ground for impeachment and also something that democrats might really do something about if they retake

the house. >> we're getting new information coming in to cnn right now about the prospects of that meeting next month between the president and kim jong-un. we'll update you right after this. picking the right style takes time.

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that the summit between president trump and kim jong-un will come to fruition. jeremy diamond is working the story for us. what are you picking up. >> reporter: sources are telling us that administration officials -- trump administration officials are glowing increasingly skeptal that this summit between president trump and the north korean leader kim jong-un that is scheduled for next month could possibly not take place. this comes in the wake of these north korean statements last week that struck a harsher tone than in the past. and that has led administration officials questioning how dedicated north korean is to denuclearization. all of this comes to a head tomorrow as president trump is set to meet with the south korean president, president moon jae-in, and they're set to coordinate on the talks. but the president will be looking for assurances from the south korean president, he is the one who helped broker this

opening between the white house and north korean. he's come to the white house to offer the assurances that kim jong-un was committed to denuclearization. and the exercises should go forward between the u.s. and south korea. but now north korea has put out a statement threatening to cancel the summit amidst the military exercises. so the south korea president coming to the white house to say how serious north korea is to denuclearization. we know that's husband goal. we know the only alternative this administration sees to these talks is possible military action. the president signalled so last week when he said he did not view the libya model as denuclearization libya and subsequent military intervention years later as the model. but he said if there is no deal

to be struck, north korea could face a similar face to libya and iraq as well as far as military intervention and the removal of power of kim jong-un. >> good reporting, jerry, thanks very much. the president tweeted earlier this morning, china must continue to be strong and tight on the border of north korea until a deal is made. the word is the border has become more pourous and filtering in. i want this to be successful but only after signing. he wants the meeting but he's getting nervous about it. >> certainly. he seems to shift some blame toward china. but a lot of experts i have spoken with that u.s. demands that north korea dismantle its nuclear problem were always going to be a nonstarter. it's also worth noting that pulling back from the iran nuclear deal some believe sent a signal perhaps to pyongyang that

the u.s. cannot be relied upon as a negotiating partner and keep up its end. is that may have under mined some of the talks. >> supporters already pushing for a nobel peace prize for the president but that might be premature. >> getting over their skis, as we say. i think the president has been talking the summit up and it's a little naive to believe you can talk the summit up and make it occur unless you have the preconditions set going in. normally summits like this are done beforehand and then the president and kim jong-un would meet and kind of shake hands, but the deal would be done. at this point it's very clear there is no deal done and the clock is ticking here. so how can you predict that he's going to denuclearize.

all of this stuff, the ground work hasn't been laid. >> maybe the only other operation is a military operation, which would be so, so devastating. >> that's why i think any sane person has been rooting for this to take place. because, you know, in the period leading up to the summit, there really did seem to be the possibility of war. and, you know, the people who live in seoul, just a few miles from the border where there's all this artillery pointed, they're in tremendous jeopardy, the north koreans are in tremendous jeopardy and if the missiles work as advertised the united states might be in jeopar jeopardy. so i think everyone is rooting for this to succeed. but as we're pointing out, it is difficult to see how kim jong-un is going to denuclearize when he says he's not. >> three hostages came back from

north korea, if that's all that comes out of it and there's no war, that's a win for president trump. but in the bigger picture he was going to broker piece by charming kim jong-un and president xi, countries have interests it's not about personalities. >> then you have john bolton talk about the libya model, which is not the right thing to say to kim jong-un, because gaddafi is no longer. dramatic new pictures of lava flowing on the big island of hawaii. we'll go there with the latest. did they defect from north korea or were they abducted by south korea? tonight the man at the center of an international drama now speaking out. to launch thousands of attacks. luckily security analysts and watson are on his side.

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with citi, we see a bright future for our farmers and their families. ♪ breaking news on the island of hawaii. tonight some residents in the volcano eruption zone are being told to be prepared to leave with little or no notice. stephanie elam is on the scene for us. what's the latest? >> reporter: there you go. this is something i was going to warn you about. i'll show you a shot of the lava, and that was volcanic gas escaping the earth from a fissure about a mile away. i've seen it when it gets

launched out of that fissure, the rocks launched at 200 feet, maybe more. one man was hit wiand they're asking people to be cautious. this lava first doountain, we'v watching. notice the color changing inside, how deep orange it is in the middle. as it comes up, hits the sky, comes down darker and begins that cooling process. behind it, that big white plume of volcanic gas, that's a huge concern for the people who live in this section of the big island. that volcanic gas there is very difficult, it is very irritating to the eyes, to the throat. and it causes respiratory problems. then you see the sea of black lava cascading down here towards the ocean. we know this lava did make its way across a highway that runs along the ocean and a major

evacuation route. but also, when it crossed over into the ocean, it created something called laze, that is when the lava hits the ocean and with the reaction with the salt water, creates hydrochloric acid, steam, and little pieces was glass that are dangerous to your skin, to your breathing, to your eyes. the u.s. coast guard has set up a perimeter of about a thousand feet to keep people from getting too close. we were in a helicopter earlier today, you could see how large the plume was where the lava was hitting the water. and this fountain is much larger than it was yesterday. it's very much an alive situation. this eruption not over. as some fissures that were active, slowed down, and other fissures come back to life. still a precarious situation for people living in the area. >> we'll have much more on this coming up throughout the flight.

meanwhile, a north korean man at the center of an international drama is speaking about how he was allegedly tricked into defecting to south korea. he spoke to cnn's paula hancocks in his only interview with any international news media. paula, good reporting. what did he tell you? >> this was a very sensational defection when it happened. 12erate r 12 waitresses from a north korean restaurant who said they were tricked into coming into south korea. so it raises the question, what is south korea saying? 12 restaurants and their manager arrived in south korea april 2016, the north claimed they had been tricked. the south said they had escaped freely. now the restaurant manager is speaking out and says pyongyang is right. he wants his face hidden. he tells me, he was an informant

for south korea's spy agency the nis, while running this north korean restaurant in china. he became disillusioned with the kim jong-un regime. he said he was blackmailed by one of his customers who knew he was working with the intelligence agency and decided to defect to south korea with nis help. the nis told me to bring everyone with me, i told them it was impossible. their attitude changed, saying if i didn't bring the workers, they would report me to the north korean embassy and have me killed. they called back and said this is president park geun-hye's plan. in a highly unusual move the south korean unification ministry publicized the mass defection releasing a photo of the north koreans, saying 13 defectors voluntarily decided to leave and pushed ahead with the escape without any help from the outside. the ministry, now part of a new liberal government, says they

are looking into the fresh allegations, but there's no change in the government's stance that the women defected of their own free will. three of the waitress's family were brought to a cnn team in may 2016 for interviews. they all said the women were kidnapped. the emotional interviews organized by the north korean government. officials also brought other waitresses they say were working at the same restaurant in china but left before ho took the women to malaysia. they too insisted their colleagues would never have abandoned their families and were tricked into going to south korea. >> what did you say to the women who convince them to go with you? where did they think they were going? >> i told the workers, we are moving accommodation to a better place, he says. in north korea, there's a very strict hierarchy, like the military. lower rankings cannot question my orders. cnn affiliate jtvc also spoke to three women who say they are the waitresses and were tricked by their manager. others did not want to talk or could not be tracked down.

we were put into cars, they say, a few in each car. that's when we saw the south korean flag and the embassy. when we were going to the south korean embassy in malaysia, i thought, something is horribly wrong here. ho said the women were given south korean passports with false names and flown to south korea, a normally trechioachero journey which usually takes months, took just two days. the nis paid for the plane fares, it was about $10,000. cnn has asked the nis about these accusations. they have yet to respond. >> why have you decided to talk about this now? >> i realized the government was manipulating and felt that north korean propaganda against the south was right, but i regret it so much. >> this happened under the previous administration, but certainly it's the current administration that has to deal with the fall-out. the president of south korea, moon jae-in, who is in d.c. tonight about to meet the u.s.

president. certainly it's a tricky situation for him to be in. >> very tricky. i'm sure it's causing a lot of awkwardness in this relationship between north and south korea right now. paula hancocks, thanks and welcome to washington. >> thank you. that's it for me. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >> "outfront" next, president trump and his allies stepping up their war against rod rosenstein, pushing the conspiracy theory that he's part of a deep state against trump. will it work? plus, the fbi confidential source that provided all that information about the trump campaign, was he there for political reasons? and trump threatens to have a sanctuary city mayor investigated for obstruction of justice. a congressman trying to pass a bill that would land her in prison for five years. he even named the bill after her. tonight i'll speak exclusively with the oakland mayor. let's